EngageNY
Introducing Close Reading: Finding the Main Message and Taking Notes About Rain School
This second lesson in a larger unit is perfect for the beginning of the year because it explicitly teaches 3rd graders how to use close reading skills by identifying unfamiliar words, figuring out the gist, and defining important...
Student Achievement Partners
"The Glorious Whitewasher" from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain with Mini-Assessment
It's the classic scene: Tom Sawyer is whitewashing a fence. Expose your learners to Mark Twain's humor while reinforcing reading comprehension. Eighth graders are encouraged to read and reread, achieving as much exposure to the text as...
Novelinks
Running Out of Time: Anticipation Guide
Get your class ready to read with this anticipatory set for Running Out of Time. Small groups each consider one thought-provoking statement. After each group comes to a consensus, the whole class participates in sharing ideas and voting...
Institute for the Professional Development of Adult Educators
Using Context Clues with Signal Words
When you come across an unfamiliar word in a text, do you skip it and move on? Practice using context clues to identify words you don't know with a thorough set of language arts lessons. The resource reinforces close reading and critical...
Curated OER
Pudd'nhead Wilson: Anticipation Guide
Get your pupils thinking about some of the big ideas present in Mark Twain's Pudd'nhead Wilson with this anticipation guide. Learners decided if they believe a series of statements are true or false. A discussion follows.
Curated OER
Bud, Not Buddy: Guided Imagery Exercise
Develop readers’ awareness of the visual power of language with a guided imagery exercise. Set the stage and create the mood with dim lights, soft music and potpourri. Then read the provided section of Bud, Not Buddy. Next, invite...
Novelinks
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter: Anticipation Guide
Get readers thinking about issues raised by Chapter 5 of Carson McCullers' The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter with an anticipation guide. Individuals decide whether they agree or disagree with a series of statements and discuss their thinking...
EngageNY
Close Reading: The Introduction to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
As part of a group of lessons, your class will return to the primary text for this unit, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Key vocabulary as well as close reading strategies continue to be the focus skills; however, this lesson...
Curated OER
Parrot in the Oven: Anticipation Guide
Get readers thinking about the major themes in Victor Martinez's award-winning novel, Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida by asking them to agree or disagree with the prompts on an anticipation guide and to discuss their responses with class...
PBS
Copyright and Fair Use
When is using someone else's copyrighted material appropriate? Learn about copyright and fair use with a lesson from PBS.org. Scholars read through a reference sheet about authors' rights and users' rights, and then create posters for a...
Classroom Law Project
Should we believe everything we read? Becoming a discerning consumer of media
Class members investigate the role media should play in a healthy democracy. As part of this study, groups analyze political advertising, use FactCheck to assess not only the veracity of but the persuasions techniques used in candidates'...
Curated OER
Guide Words
Third graders investigate guide words. In this library lesson, 3rd graders investigate guide words in reference materials and complete an alphabetizing worksheet.
Curated OER
Shared and Guided Reading with Ice Cream Money
Here is a lesson plan which has young scholars locate an exclamation point and a comma from the text. They locate previously learned words on the page, and create a word map from the word "Money." Students write about and illustrate...
Novelinks
The Book Thief: Anticipation Guide
Introduce the major themes in Markus Zusak's award-winning novel, The Book Thief, with an anticipation guide that asks readers to agree or disagree with a series of statements.
Curated OER
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer: Anticipation Guide
Start off your study of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer with a lesson plan spent exploring some of the concepts that will be present in the novel. This anticipation guide focuses on honesty and lying. After learners decided if they agree or...
Curated OER
Using Dictionary Entries
Work on word pronunciations by exploring the dictionary. Learners complete a worksheet containing questions about dictionary entries. They review how to use a dictionary, identify syllable breaks, parts of speech, and word pronunciation.
Curated OER
Lesson 3: Retell a Story with Sequence Clue Words
First graders evaluate sequence words. In this order of events lesson plan, 1st graders practice using sequence words to retell a story. They do guided practice with the teacher retelling a story they have read as a class and then try it...
Curated OER
We Play Music
Do you like music? Have your youngsters read We Play Music, practicing select reading strategies, like using picture clues to determine new words. Then, after their first independent read, have them re-read the story to a partner,...
Curated OER
Finders Keepers: Vocabulary Instructional Routine Guide for Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Like Oskar, the curious boy in Jonathan Safran Foer’s story, class members journey through other “stories that the mouth can’t tell” to find another sentence that uses a word found in novel. Individuals create their own vocabulary list,...
Brigham Young University
Out of the Dust: Guided Imagery
A guided imagery exercise is a great way to get readers thinking about writing. As part of their study of Out of the Dust, Karen Hesse’s 1998 Newbery Medal winning verse novel, class members listen to a reading of one of the poems from...
EngageNY
Analyzing Author’s Craft: “I Have a Dream”
It's time to make some connections! Scholars complete a close reading of the speech I Have a Dream by Martin Luther King, Jr. They use an I Have a Dream Speech Gist Note-catcher, and I Have a Dream text-dependent questions to guide their...
EngageNY
Solving Basic One-Variable Quadratic Equations
Help pupils to determine whether using square roots is the method of choice when solving quadratic equations by presenting a lesson that begins with a dropped object example and asks for a solution. This introduction to solving by square...
College Board
Reading—Synthesis and Paired Passages
Good readers make connections between texts. The SAT regularly assesses the ability to make those connections using paired reading passages, a topic discussed in an official SAT practice lesson plan on synthesis. During the lesson,...
Curated OER
Cat on the Mat Guided Reading Lesson
Young learners participate in a guided reading lesson plan. They will read the book Cat on the Mat by Brian Wildsmith. The teacher helps provide the group with reading strategies, and provides more one-on-one support during independent...